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There are certain purchases that make you feel like you’ve beaten the system. Finding the last clearance item in your size is satisfying. Scoring impossible-to-get concert tickets feels downright heroic. Walking into a liquor store and buying a bottle that normally sells for more than $700 for roughly $100? That’s the kind of victory you bring up at Thanksgiving for years.

Unfortunately, one woman’s once-in-a-lifetime bourbon score has already become Thanksgiving legend for an entirely different reason.

She comes from a family of bourbon enthusiasts, and she, her father and her brother-in-law all understand the thrill—and occasional absurdity—of hunting for rare bottles. So when a local liquor store held a special Thanksgiving morning event offering collectors a chance to buy hard-to-find bourbon at retail price, there was one bottle everybody had their eye on.

Her brother-in-law couldn’t attend because of work, so her sister went in his place and asked her to tag along. She agreed, partly to keep Sis company and partly because she’s a collector herself who wanted her own shot at something special.

Then her number was called early, the bourbon gods smiled upon her, and she landed the bottle everyone wanted.

Her brother-in-law had just one problem with her incredible luck: according to him, she’d actually won it for him.

Welcome to Pappygate.

AITA for “stealing” a bottle of $700 bourbon from my BIL

So, in my (29F) family, a few of us drink/collect bourbon, mainly me, my BIL (33M), and my dad (60M). Some bottles are extremely rare, expensive, and hard to find, so collectors will line up at stores or attend special events hoping to get one.

Last Thanksgiving, a liquor store near my sister and BIL was holding an event with a large number of rare bourbons. Everyone who arrived at 8 a.m. received a number, and numbers were randomly called throughout the morning. When called, you could buy one available bottle at MSRP. Everyone would eventually be called, but earlier numbers had better choices.

My BIL was especially excited because he has a huge bourbon collection but has never been able to find a bottle of Pappy (this is kind of like the holy grail of bourbons that all collectors, myself included, would die to find a bottle of at this price).

Amazing.

I was about 50/50 on going because I also collect bourbon and would kill for a bottle of pappy, but I had not fully committed because it was thanksgiving morning and we had a lot going on at home.

At the last minute, my BIL had to work Thanksgiving morning. He asked my sister, who does not care about bourbon, to go in his place and hopefully get the Pappy. She asked me to come so she would not have to attend “this whole bourbon circus alone.”

Since I had already considered going and wanted a chance at a cool bottle for my collection, I went with her. We also invited my dad, because he too would kill to get his own bottle of pappy, but he thought the whole thing sounded weird and stayed home.

Seems like all is going well…

My sister and I received numbers 54 and 55. My number was called about 15 people in, and I bought a bottle of Pappy for around $100. It is nearly impossible to find near us and usually sells for $700+.

My sister was called much later after the pappy was gone and settled for a bottle of EH Taylor, which is good but not nearly as rare or expensive.

I was thrilled, this is literally the bottle of a lifetime I never thought I would get. However, when we got home, my BIL immediately said, “That is my bourbon.” He believes I went solely as his stand-in, so the Pappy should belong to him. He says I “stole” the bottle he would have gotten if he had been able to attend.

What the heck?

I disagree. I went because I also drink and collect bourbon and wanted a bottle for myself. I never agreed to give him anything I bought.

I knew my sister was there specifically for him, but I considered myself an independent participant who was also keeping her company.

I could understand his argument if my sister had brought my mom, who could not care less about bourbon, and she happened to get the Pappy. Then she would clearly have been there only as a stand-in. But that was not my situation.

Clearly…

My BIL still refers to it as “his Pappy” and brings up “Pappygate” whenever possible.

So, Reddit, AITA? I genuinely did not realize he believed I was attending on his behalf. In his mind, I schemed him out of the one bottle he has wanted for years to complete his collection.

Disclaimer: This argument is mostly in good fun, and I love my sister and BIL. I would just like to settle it so I can stop hearing about Pappygate but when I open this bottle it will 100% be with him present for the first tasting.

Commenters largely sided with the woman and declared her NTA, because there seems to be one crucial flaw in her brother-in-law’s ownership claim: nobody ever told her she was his stand-in.

Her sister clearly was. She doesn’t care about bourbon, attended specifically because her husband couldn’t and was trying to secure a bottle on his behalf. If her number had been called while Pappy was still available, there’d be a pretty strong argument that the bottle belonged to him.

But his sister-in-law was already interested in attending for herself. She collects bourbon, wanted a rare bottle for her own collection, received her own number and paid for her own purchase. Keeping her sister company may have been what finally got her out the door on Thanksgiving morning, but that doesn’t magically transfer whatever she bought to her brother-in-law.

The random-number system also makes his “you got the bottle I would have gotten” argument pretty shaky. There’s no guarantee he would have received her exact number or been called at the same point in the event had he attended himself. The hypothetical version where he shows up and walks away with that exact Pappy simply isn’t something anyone can prove.

Luckily, this sounds less like a family-ending bourbon betrayal and more like the birth of an extremely persistent inside joke. Calling it “Pappygate” is admittedly funny. Calling the bottle his Pappy every time he sees it is exactly the sort of grievance a brother-in-law can lovingly maintain for the next 40 years.

And she’s already offering the best consolation prize possible: when she finally opens her ridiculously lucky $100 bottle, he’ll be there for the first pour.

He just doesn’t get to take it home afterward.
This person makes a good point.

This person says it sounds like he cares more than OP.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a sister who let her brother maintain a shared car for years, and doesn’t want to start doing it herself now that he has his own car.

And this person gives a suggestion.

He may have missed his shot at Pappy, but at least Pappygate aged into a pretty good family story.